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We are very proud to announce that the piano music of Ronn Yedidia will be published gradually by Muse Press. As his first publications from Muse Press, two piano works Ether and Toward the Gardens of Heaven will be published on 6th of August. Its pre-release will be held at Shota Ezaki’s recital which will take place at the Kioi-cho Salon Hall on 5th of August with the presence of the composer.

Ronn YedidiaRonn Yedidia’s compositions have galvanized the attention of performing artists worldwide during the last two decades. His works have been featured in major concert halls and documented on film, radio and television. He has won high critical acclaim from leading newspapers around the world, as both composer and pianist.

Born in 1960 in Tel Aviv, Israel, he began his musical career as a child prodigy pianist, winning 1st Prize at the Young Concert Artists’ Competition of Israel at the age of eight. His main teacher and mentor was Israel’s first lady of the piano, Pnina Salzman, who herself was a protege of Alfred Cortot. Active as a performer for many years, Ronn decided at the age of 15 to shift his attention towards composition. In 1984 he entered the Juilliard School from which he holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in composition. During his studies there under David Diamond and Milton Babbitt he received all the major prizes in composition, including the Lincoln Center Scholarship, the Irving Berlin Scholarship, the Henry Mancini Prize, and the Richard Rodgers Scholarship. He also won the Juilliard Composition Competition twice – in 1987 & 1989 – and as a result had his works performed at the Juilliard Theater and at Alice Tully Hall.

Soon after receiving his DMA in Musical Composition from The Juilliard School of Music in 1991, composer/pianist Ronn Yedidia decided to abandon all the common trends which represented mainstream contemporary music, and instead embarked on an individual journey toward the re-establishment of traditional tonal principles such as melody, harmony, form, aestheticism, drama and dialogue. His passion for folk, jazz and other non-classical genres of music which maintain tonality in their essence has helped him enhance his musical language. He has written for all instrumental mediums from solo through chamber to symphonic works, and for most vocal idioms including art song, pop/folk songs, and both sacred & secular choral works. The world premiere of his work “Steps In The Wonderland” was performed by The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in May, 2007. Major commissions include the San Antonio International Piano Competition, the Seattle Chamber Music Society and the Zamir Chorale of New York. In 1994, Yedidia was invited by Wanda Toscanini-Horowitz to edit and record the unpublished piano compositions by the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz.
Ronn’s compositions have been recorded by renowned artists and ensembles on many major labels such as EMI Classics, Naxos’ American Classics series, Hyperion Records and Sony BMG. His solo album “Yedidia Plays Yedidia”,
on Britain’s Altarus label, has galvanized the attention of numerous pianists and composers around the world. In addition to his many national and international awards, Dr. Yedidia has won special grants from both ASCAP and BMI, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. He is the co-founder and Classical Program Director of The New York Piano Academy in Manhattan.

The British pianist Mark Viner has written a piano transcription of Chorus of Hebrew Slaves from the Opera Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi. Muse Press will publish the transcription on 2nd of July through our webshop.

The transcriber Mark Viner described his transcription as follows:

The motivation for writing this transcription came not only from an ardent love of Verdi’s immortal original, but the fact that there is a striking absence of any substantial arrangement of it in the piano literature; a circumstance curious to relate considering the universal popularity of the work during an especially fertile era of pianist-composers parading newly-minted transcriptions, paraphrases and fantasies on operas of the day.

While writing this transcription I sought to give as faithful and fulsome an impression of Verdi’s original within the confines of the piano as might be mustered. In doing so, it is my wish that this offering goes some small way towards filling a gap in the literature and upholding the tradition of the pianist-composer.

Mark Viner is especially known as an interpreter of the romantic piano music. He has recorded CDs for Piano Classics, including the piano works of Charles-Valentin Alkan, Franz Liszt, Sigismond Thalberg, Cécile Chaminade. He is recently appearing on the front cover of International Piano Magazines 50th issue.

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Mark Viner Profile

Mark Viner is recognised as one of the most exciting British concert pianists of his generation and is becoming increasingly well-known for his bold championing of unfamiliar pianistic terrain.

Born in 1989, he began playing at the age of 11 and two years later was awarded a scholarship to enter the Purcell School of Music where he studied with Tessa Nicholson for the next five years during which time he gave acclaimed performances at London’s St. John’s, Smith Square and the Wigmore Hall. Another scholarship then took him to the Royal College of Music where he studied with Niel Immelman for six years, graduating in 2011 with both first class honours in a Bachelor of Music degree and winning the Sarah Mundlak Memorial Prize for Piano after having gained the highest mark in the year for his final recital and, following a bursary from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, he graduated with a distinction in Master of Performance in 2013.

After winning 1st prize at the Alkan-Zimmerman International Piano Competition in Athens, Greece in 2012, where his official début recital in the Hellenic capital was hailed by the press as the most exciting musical event of 2012, engagements at home and abroad have flourished. Invitations to festivals include the Pharos Arts Foundation, Cyprus, ProPiano Hamburg and Raritäten der Klaviermusik, Husum in Germany, Indian Summer in Levoča, Slovakia, and the Cheltenham Music Festival and Oxford Lieder Festival in the United Kingdom, while radio broadcasts include recitals aired on Deutschlandfunk and interviews on BBC Radio 3. Engagements in his hometown of Oxford include recitals at the Holywell Music Room, the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building and the Sheldonian Theatre where he made his début with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra under the bâton of Marios Papadopoulos. On another occasion he was invited to play for the royal visit of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. Following his affiliation with with Keyboard Charitable Trust, he has recently embarked on three extremely successful tours of the USA, Germany and Italy.

Aside from a busy schedule of teaching and performances he is also a published writer and his advocacy for the music of Charles-Valentin Alkan and Franz Liszt has led to his election as Chairman of both the Alkan Society and the Liszt Society in 2014 and 2017 respectively. He is very active in the recording studio and his recordings of music by Thalberg, Liszt and, more recently, Alkan on the Piano Classics label have garnered critical acclaim.

We are delighted to announce that we will publish an unpublished transcription “Home, sweet home” by Leopold Godowsky (the original piece was composed by Henry Bishop) with a preface by the Canadian composer-pianist Marc-André Hamelin.

Although Leopold Godowsky recorded the transcription on piano roll and Brunswick, its sheet music have never been published up to now for some unknown reasons. The pre-order of the sheet music will start at the recital by Marc-André Hamelin on 25th of June in Tokyo. And the online sales will start on 26th of June thorough the website of Muse Press.

The Italian pianist Vincenzo Maltempo is one of the leading pianists of his generation. On the other hand, he is also buldingan incredible career as a composer and transcriber. Muse Press is finally ready to publish his transcripitons and cadenza.

We are delighted to announce the publication of Kohei Tanaka/Pianeet’s “GUNBUSTER FANTASY” & “Incomplete Concerto”. It will be available for advanced sale at the concert by Yui Morishita(Pianeet) & Takashi Yamada in Kanagawa on 26th of May, 2018. The general release will take place on 28th of May 2018 via our webshop.

The transcription for piano “GUNBUSTER FANTASY” was based on the Japanese composer Tanaka Kohei’s original pieces that were composed for the sci-fi anime “Aim for the Top!”. In fact, this anime is known as “Gunbuster” rather than “Aim for the Top!” outside Japan. What is the “Gunbuster” ?… It is a space-going giant robot which was developed by the human for fighting against the space monsters invading the earth. The “GUNBUSTER FANTASY” was completed by Pianeet (Autonym: Yui Morishita) in 2011 and recorded on his debut album called “Singularity“. In addition to the album’s release, a video of his performance of “GUNBUSTER FANTASY” can be available on YouTube and Niconico. Pianeet is describing this piece as below:

“GUNBUSTER FANTASY” has the structure which is intended to remind listeners of the original anime story, based on the original musics composed by Kohei Tanaka. It would be appropriate to regard the “FANTASY” as the combination of suite or medley of the original sound tracks and overture style. As regarding that the musical motifs of “Gunbuster” and “Noriko” are respectively “1st theme” and “2nd theme” of G minor sonata form, we will have deeper understanding of the importance of the two motifs and the whole structure of the work. The recapitulation part is actually out of typical sonata form, but the tonal relation between the themes is intentionally theoretical.

The second transcription by Pianeet is “Incomplete Concerto”. This is originally composed by Kohei Tanaka and it was used for the TV anime “Violinist of Hameln” as an opening theme song. When Pianeet performed its transcription at a concert in Kanagawa, he described on Twitter as bellow:

Mr. Tanaka says that the Incomplete Concerto is one of the best three works ever he has composed at least until 2009.
I’m fascinated every time I play the piece. This is absolutely cool!

Acknowledgments:
Thank you very much to Masanori Enoki (composer, pianist) for helping to edit/proofread this publication.

Yui Morishita, piano Yui Morishita is a Japanese pianist and composer. After graduating from Junior and Senior High School at Komaba, Tsukuba University, Yui Morishita studied piano at Tokyo University of the Arts and its Graduate School. In 2004, he won second prize at the Tokyo Music Competition. At his final recital of the Graduate School in 2006, he was chosen as one of the outstanding students to take part in the Bösendorfer Joint Recital (held at Hamarikyu Asahi Hall). He has given solo recitals at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall and also performs widely as orchestral soloist, song accompanist, and chamber musician. In addition to his playing, he provides music for films and he writes too. He is a strong advocate of the music of Alkan: he has edited and written commentary for the Japanese editions of his music and he has published a series of articles for Piano Teachers’ National Association website. He gave an all-Alkan recital in 2013, commemorating the 200th anniversary of his birth. Morishita is Associate Producer of the Chofu Festival in Tokyo, and also music staff of the Conducting Department at the Tokyo University of the Arts. In the online community, especially on video-sharing sites such as YouTube, he is also known under the name of “Duke of Pianeet”, and his CD “Singularity” released in 2011 became Amazon Japan’s top-selling CD in classical music.

Additional publication of Vincenzo Maltempo’s transcription, Prelude from Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” is now on pre-order. We’ll start shipping it with his Cadenza to Liszt’s 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody. Thus those who have ordered the former publication can save additional shipping cost.

Wagner/Maltempo: Prelude from “Tristan und Isolde”

As if originally intended for the work for piano, Maltempo captured Wagner’s mature chromatic counterpoints and transcribed them with highly refined pianistic language. You can find Maltempo’s highly accomplished technic of transcription.

12 pages for content. 1500 yen without VAT. It will be published early April. We now accept your pre-order on our site.

Muse Press is really pleased to announce that we have just opened a pre-order of the Cadenza to Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Vincenzo Maltempo. The composer is considered one of the most talented Italian pianists of his generation, and he has been recognized as a great interpreter of the music of Charles-Valentin Alkan. Especially, it is notable that he performed the complete set of Alkan’s Douze études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39 in one night(!) in Japan, 2013. His repertoire goes all the way from the baroque to the contemporary music, particularly the romantic music is his specialty. Recently he recorded piano sonatas by Glazunov, Kosenko for PIANO CLASSICS.

Liszt composed his 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody in 1847, the most famous of all the 19 ones. Around the end of the piece, the composer gives a special invitation for pianists to perform their own cadenza (he write “cadenza ad libitum”). Definitely, Mr. Maltempo accepts the invitation. He recorded the piece with his cadenza for the album of the complete Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies issued by PIANO CLASSICS, and he also performed many times in his recitals. The cadenza is witty and improvisational, reflecting the fragments of the original melody. We hope you will enjoy this fantastic cadenza.

Vincenzo Maltempo is artistic personality finds an important place in the contemporary wide and diversified music scene after his massive recordings and recitals dedicated to Charles-Valentin Alkan of which he is considered one of the most authoritative interpreter and connoisseur in the world. Since 2009, in fact, he recorded the most important Alkan works for the English label ‘Piano Classics’; this considerable work has attracted the attention of the most renowned international magazines such as Diapason, The Guardian, PianoNews, Gramophone and others where his recordings get the coveted ’5 Stars’. He recorded and played Alkan’s most important works and he is one of the very few interpreters who played the whole set of the “Douze études dans toutes les tons mineurs” Op. 39 in one single recital (Yokohama, November 2013). As a result of his continuous work of rediscovering and promoting the forgotten Alkan music, he was awarded with the honorary membership of the “Alkan Society” in London. In fact his discography, besides to Alkan, can count many other recordings dedicated to Franz Liszt (“Klavierwerke”, Gramola, 2009, and the Complete Hungarian Rhapsodies, prized by Gramophone as “Editor’s Choice” in February 2017 and defined “the finest I’ve ever heard” by P. Ruckert in his review on the same magazine), to Robert Schumann (Piano Classics 2014), to the music for Violin and Piano by Michele Esposito with the violinist Carmelo Andriani (Brilliant Classics 2014) and to S. Lyapunov, with an important recording of his “12 Études d’exécution transcendante, Op. 11” (Piano Classics 2017). All of them are prized with the highest awards from the international press. His international career sees him performing in the most important Festivals and theaters in Europe (Venice “La Fenice”, Cagliari “Teatro Lirico”, Spoleto “Festival dei due Mondi”, Liszt Festival in Raiding, the “Raritäten der Klaviermusik” in Husum etc), America (Miami “International Piano Festival” etc), Mexico (“Festival Internacional de Piano en Blanco y Negro”), Asia. He regularly hold Masterclasses and he is invited as jury member in National and International Competitions. His musical journey, began in a very early age spontaneously in his family, is heavily influenced by Salvatore Orlando which is pianist and teacher, pupil of Sergio Fiorentino and after continues with Riccardo Risaliti at the International Piano Academy “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola. He lives in his birthplace, Benevento. He currently teaches at the Conservatory “Gesualdo da Venosa”, in Potenza, Italy.

“The Moldau”, transcription for piano by Kotaro Fukuma, was released and mail order was launched today on this site. You can purchase it from the shop pageof the header menu. 2,000 yen for 1 copy (currency will be daily changed). We also sell 60 set limited edition, containing Fukuma Kotaro concert brochure (English), so please purchase as soon as possible. Shipping is scheduled from the 9th of January.

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We are very happy to announce our first publication: The Moldau (Smetana) transcribed by the Japanese pianist Kotaro Fukuma who is one of the most prominent pianists of his generation.

This transcription is recorded in the album «Sing to water» (Esprit du Piano) in 2015 which he performed it many times in his concerts. Since the pianist never wrote it down, Shota Ezaki who is one of the co-founders of Muse Press tried to write it down from his recording. And Mr. Fukuma revised the score, and added some ossias in order to make the definitive edition. The score is contained in 32 pages of which 26 pages are for the transcription, featuring fully orchestral sounds of one of the most famous works in the history of music, and at the same, showing a mastery writing of pianistic dynamics.

The transcription will maximize the possibility of piano, demonstrate how the piano can illustrate several expressions of sounds.

We will launch a pre-sales of the score in Mr. Fukoma’s recitals in this December 2017. The score will be available to the general public for purchase from the January 2018. The price is 2,000 yen (1,852 yen VAT excluded). We will create a reservation form as soon as possible.

Profile (English)

photo by Takuji Shimmura

Born in Tokyo, Kotaro Fukuma has received many high awards in international competitions. At the age of 20, Kotaro won both First Prize and the Chopin Prize at the 15th Cleveland International Piano Competition. Since then his concert career has developed on five continents.

Kotaro Fukuma has released commercial CDs from Naxos, ARS Produktion, Éditio ns Hortus, Orpheus Classical, DENON and Accustika. Fukuma’s transcription of the Moldau is available on his album “Sing to Water” (Esprit du Piano).